Each quarter, two close friends and I carve out a 24 to 48 hour window for learning opportunities. This quarter we decided to visit another friend of ours who works at Facebook headquarters in San Francisco. Mike Lage took a few hours to not only give us a tour but provide some valuable insights into the Facebook culture. Here’s a sample of what we learned:

Facebook’s cultural axioms are all over the place. There are banners, t-shirts and signs reminding everyone of these axioms. Here are a few:
1. Done is better than perfect.
(At Facebook, there is a bias toward action and grace toward making mistakes. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It needs to get done.)
2. Stay focused and keep shipping.
3. Move fast and break things.
(Interestingly, this is contrary to the research in Jim Collins’ lastest book “Great by Choice” which talks about the value of consistency and steady plodding. I’m not suggesting we have to pick one. I just wonder if moving fast and breaking things competes with consistency and steady plodding?)
4. What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
5.Fortune favors the bold
6. Code wins arguments.
I found this particularly helpful. The intent is this: instead of debating ad nausem the validity of an idea, build a prototype. Test it out. Write the code and react to what you build instead of debating a theoretical argument. Interesting.

Facebook discusses two types of customer insights:
1. Engagement insight: Why do people care about your brand?
2. Social insight: Why would they tell others about your brand?
(Church leaders – simply replace brand with church in the two questions above.)

Facebook is focused on their potential customers in addition to their current ones. Mike Lage put it this way, “Facebook has 900 million users. There are 7 billion people in the world. We have a long way to go.”

Finally, I have a new appreciation for the word: “Hack.” Prior to this visit, I thought hacking meant breaking into someone’s network. At Facebook, the term Hack is revered. Hacking means pulling people and resources together to build and then ship an idea. It’s not brainstorming. It’s brainstorming
plus doing. That’s hacking. Facebook is famous for having “all-night hack-a-thons” or a week of hacking. Again, they have an immense desire to move fast and keep shipping. Simply coming up with a good idea is not a win. Making ideas happen is the win. In fact, the place where Mark Zuckerberg spends most of his time at Facebook preaches the value of hacking. It’s pictured below.

All that said, which of these lessons from Facebook is most helpful for you?

As we were filing away what happened around Gwinnett Church for Easter weekend, we thought it might be fun to give away the music charts, ideas, a title package and few other things to churches.  We hope you find this helpful. Consider yourself way ahead in planning for Easter 2013!

1.  Music Charts
Our music director Matt Adkins has put together three music charts which includes our two openers for Good Friday and Easter Sunday along with a hymn medley we did during communion.

2.  Good Friday Title package.
Here is a link to this stop-motion title package.  Feel free to download it and use it. Just note that we played live underneath the video so you will want to create a music bed for it. If you would like to contact the artist, Aaron Harris, leave a comment below and we will get you connected!

3.  Easter Sunday opener.
Here is a link to the opener. Our aim was to create a song that first-time visitors were familiar with and leans into the celebration of the day.

4.  Hymn Medley.
Matt arranged this medley of hymns which we played during communion Friday night.

5.  Good Friday Opener.
We spent a lot of time thinking through how to open the Good Friday service.  We had an idea that we weren’t completely sold on so we decided to shelve it for another year. Instead, we went with a more simple approach: http://vimeo.com/40885604.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I’ll be happy to answer.

Thanks!
Lauren Espy
Service Programming Director

This past Sunday night we had another opportunity to celebrate two more baptisms. This time we celebrated with Dana and Bobby.  Thank for helping us create churches where stories like this happen.

Jeff

Dana Wilson from Gwinnett Church on Vimeo.

Bobby Collazo from Gwinnett Church on Vimeo.

This past weekend Gwinnett Church celebrated Good Friday and Easter services at the Gwinnett Center. This recap video highlights some of our favorite moments of the weekend including a Good Friday and Easter opener, a hymn medley, and our Waumba and UpStreet kids celebrating a risen Savior. We are very grateful for our volunteers and investors who made this a life changing weekend for so many.

Gwinnett Church Easter Highlight from Gwinnett Church on Vimeo.

This is such a big weekend in the life of our church that we’re moving.  I figured Easter sundown services aren’t all that popular so we are moving back to see our friends at the Gwinnett Center for our Good Friday service and two Easter morning worship experiences. 

Here’s the 411 on what you need to know: 

Good Friday starts at 7 pm at the Gwinnett Center ballroom where our services were held when we started there. No childcare for Friday. 

Easter morning will feature two worship experiences with teaching from Andy at 9 am and 11 am.  Both services will offer Waumba Land and UpStreet. Transit nor InsideOut will be offered on Easter Sunday. 

Our prayer for our community and for Gwinnett Church is 2 Corinthians 5: 20, 21.  I would copy the verses here but instead I’m going to ask you to look it up!  :-) 

Thank you to all who serve and give to help make this happen.  

It’s going to be an incredible weekend. 

Jeff